The Rhetoric of ICT and the New Language of Learning: A Critical Analysis of the Use of ICT in the Curricular Field

Abstract

This article focuses on how we perceive new technology and technological development within educational settings, and seeks to establish a critical link between the rhetoric of information and communications technology (ICT) and what Biesta called ‘the new language of learning’. Within this ‘new language’ the learner is a consumer, with needs that must be fulfilled by the teacher. This rhetoric implies that ‘teaching’ has been replaced by ‘learning’ and challenges the conventional curricula in many respects. The article applies Biesta's perspective to a concrete scrutiny of current trends in education and the introduction of ICT in education in particular. The analysis gives support to Biesta's main hypothesis, but it also indicates that the radical shift from teaching to learning is accompanied, and we might possibly say influenced, by the rhetoric connected to the use of ICT. In recent Norwegian curricular texts ICT takes a position as the rationalising tools by which teaching can be made efficient, individually designed and flexible. The intention is to critically examine the way in which teaching is more or less automatically replaced by learning, the influence the rhetoric of ICT has had, and how ICT and learning seem to be connected through merely rhetorical couplings.

Good education in an age of measurement: on the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education

“…I wish to argue that they also have to do with transformations within the field of education itself and that they are closely connected to a shift in the vocabulary that is being used to talk about educational processes and practices. As I have argued elsewhere in more detail (see Biesta 2004b;2006a), the past two decades have witnessed a remarkable rise of the concept of 'learning' with a subsequent decline of the concept of 'education' (for empirical support for this thesis see Haugsbakk and Nordkvelle 2007). This rise of what I have called the 'new language of learning' is manifest, for example, in the redefinition of teaching as the facilitation of learning and of education as the provision of learning opportunities or learning experiences; it can be seen in the use of the word 'learner' instead of 'student' or 'pupil'; it is manifest in the transformation of adult education into adult learning, and in the replacement of 'permanent education' by 'lifelong learning.'…”

Devolver la enseñanza a la educación. Una respuesta a la desaparición del maestro

“…Este surgimiento puede ser percibido en una serie de cambios discursivos que han ocurrido en los últimos veinte años o más ( Haugsbakk y Nordkvelle, 2007), incluyendo la tendencia a referirse a los maestros como facilitadores del aprendizaje, a la enseñanza como la creación de oportunidades de aprendizaje, a las escuelas como ambientes de aprendizaje, a los estudiantes como aprendices y a los adultos como adultos aprendices, al campo de la educación de adultos como el aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida y a la educación en general como el proceso de enseñanza/ aprendizaje (como muchas personas suelen decir hoy en día). Un ejemplo extremo de la "aprendificación" (Biesta, 2010a) del discurso educativo es la historia de dos escuelas primarias en Sheffield (Inglaterra) que tuvieron que unirse y, después de su fusión, no solo cambiaron de nombre sino que además, decidieron no llamarse más escuela argumentando que la palabra escuela tenía muchas connotaciones negativas entre padres y alumnos.…”

Boa educação na era da mensuração

“…Eles também têm a ver com transformações dentro do próprio campo da educação e que estão intimamente ligados a uma mudança no vocabulário usado para falar de processos e práticas educacionais. Como já discuti em outros textos com mais detalhes (BIESTA, 2004b(BIESTA, , 2006a, as duas últimas décadas testemunharam uma ascensão notável do conceito de aprendizagem com um declínio subsequente do conceito de educação (para apoio empírico a essa tese, ver HAUGSBAkk, NORDkVELLE, 2007). A ascensão do que chamei "nova linguagem de aprendizagem" se manifesta, por exemplo, na redefinição do ensino como facilitação da aprendizagem e da educação como o provimento de oportunidades de aprendizagem ou de experiências de aprendizagem.…”